UF welcomes SEC Network ... and welcomes back Heather Mitts
Friday, September 5, 2014 | Football, Women's Swimming & Diving, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The lines of objectivity in journalism are easily tripped over these days, given the multitude of media platforms.
So forgive Heather Mitts if she gets caught up in the pre-game moment Saturday during a rare return visit to Florida Field. A Gator chomp sent her way just may get return fire.
“Most likely, yes,” Mitts said Thursday. “Maybe not during the game. I may have to control myself for that. But once a Gator, always a Gator.”
And in all kinds of weather, which may again be the case Saturday when the Florida football team is scheduled to open its 2014 season against Eastern Michigan (1-0) at The Swamp. The game will be televised by the SEC Network, with Tom Hart calling play-by-play, Matt Stinchcomb providing color, and Mitts, a UF Athletic Hall-of-Famer and one of the most decorated American women soccer players in history, reporting from the sidelines.
Mitts, who helped lead the Gators to the 1998 NCAA championship, graduated from Florida in 2000 with a degree in advertising and then took off on a 12-year odyssey as a professional and international soccer standout until announcing retirement from the game she loved in March 2013. When she played, Mitts was a tenacious defender who helped the U.S. to gold medals in the 2004, '08 and '12 Olympic games while playing more than 100 international matches.
Along the way, she did stints at ESPN and Fox Sports as a studio soccer analyst, and was asked to work the 2005 college football season as a sideline reporter.
“I had never done college football before then,” said Mitts, who grew up in an Ohio family of soccer and basketball junkies. “It was one of those things where I didn't feel I had any experience, but also felt like it was too good an opportunity to pass up. So I just kind of dove in ... and I really, really enjoyed doing football.”
Now, she's doing it again.
Last weekend, Mitts made her SEC Network debut on the sidelines when Kentucky blasted Tennessee-Martin 59-14 at Lexington. Her Week 2 assignment will dispatch Mitts, now 36, back to the alma mater, where she has many fond memories of being in The Swamp and cheering on Coach Steve Spurrier and the Gators.
“Danny Wuerrfel was the quarterback,” Mitts said. “He was a god.”
And she was a UF soccer goddess. 
As a freshman in 1996 on UF's second team, the Cincinnati product instantly became one of the best defensive players in the SEC, starting all but one game she played during a rookie season that ended with a broken leg in the SEC Tournament. As a sophomore, Mitts was one of four Gators to start every game on her way to winning the coaches award as the team's most inspirational player.
Then came the magical 1998 season.
Mitts started all 27 games and led the Gators in minutes played with 2,329. The final seconds of those minutes ticked away in a stirring 1-0 upset of the 14-time champion North Carolina in the NCAA title game at Greensboro, giving the Gators a national crown in just their fourth season of existence.
When she left UF a year later, Mitts did so as a two-time All-American and with the school record for career starts (94), minutes (7,547) and consecutive starts (74).
Mitts hasn't gotten back to Gainesville much -- she's been married to former NFL quarterback A.J. Feeley since 2010 and together they have a 9-month-old son -- which will make this visit all the more special. Mitts still recalls the days when the soccer players would cross paths with Spurrier in the south end zone training facility. Like that time coming off their '98 national title, an outcome that came a week after a football loss at Florida State and a Tennessee win in the SEC Championship Game.
Spurrier spoke.
“You soccer girls need to rub off a little on our football boys and show 'em how it's supposed to be done.”
He paid attention to all UF teams. This weekend, Mitts gets to relive some of those days, courtesy of ESPN.
“So, yeah, coming back to do a Gator game is going to be really exciting for me,” Mitts said. “I still bleed orange and blue. That'll never change.”
